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Champions Online - gay gamers not wanted
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Private or public, citizen or corporation, if you're located in the United States or it's territories, you must abide by the Constitution and it's Amendments. Any service or product is included in this. Lawsuits are filed and won against private companies and individuals who infringe these rights on a regular basis. All it needs is someone to challenge it. The passage you quoted means that no successive law can be made to circumvent the first amendment.
Prove this. I call bvllsh1t on this.
Did you ever take a government class? They teach you on day one that the Constitution is the Law of the Land. The entire purpose of the Supreme Court is to defend and interpret the Constitution and the court system is to ensure everyone abides by it as well. Anything that a corporation or individual does that is un-constitutional can be challenged and taken to court, doesn't matter if it's on a bulletin board or in a computer game or in the confines of your own home.
Here is how it works. Think of a game as a business building in your local downtown/uptown area. Walk into that building and start spouting off all your stupid nonsense. Then see security get called as well as the police. Then watch your dumbass get tossed out onto the street or likely in jail if you resist and cause a problem.
This isnt censorship its called 'say what you want, but we dont have to hear you say it on our turf'. Those organizations are protected from disruption, just as we are protected from being censored by the government when in civil protest.
Gaming companies probably have a greater risk of allowing ridiculous behavior than shutting it out to the street(not the same as telling you that your rights do not exist in this space).
As a gay man, I find the word "queer" in any connotation offensive. If I had seen the name in-game, I would have definitely pushed the report button. Cryptic had every right to forcibly change the name. When Cryptic handled CoH, they were very understanding of the gay community. I don't think it's right for you to come here and bash them because of your callous mistake.
As for pushing my "gayness" on others....when I walk down the street every day I see hetero couples holding hands and kissing. Why can't I, if I so choose? But as it stands, I hate PDA. People should keep that stuff behind doors. Just my opinion...
Maybe I'll name a character "FudgePacker".
Then when they tell me to rename, i'll reply that I work for Hershey.
You can. I dislike gratuitious PDA also. If someone doesnt like you kissing your gf/bf, F them. Its their problem. Shouldnt come as any suprise, its in nearly every tv show written nowadays. Just dont whip out your piece.
considering about 9 or so % of the general population is gay, we could fairly hypothesize that roughly 9 or so % of the gaming community is also gay. I am further sure that mmo companies are not run by complete morons (yeah, go head and say your SOE joke here) and that they certainly woujldnt want to alienate 9% of their playerbase by doing something defamatory against gay people.
I lead raids in wow, a few of my friends in RL and in game are gay, and I've seen gaybashers in Wow get swiftly (and deservedly) shut down in game. They won't tolerate gaybashing anymore than they'd tolerate any other bannable offense.
Perhaps the OP shouold look at his chosen name and ask seriously to themselves whether a name such as his is the kind of name that someone would make to provoke a response.
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You can. I dislike gratuitious PDA also. If someone doesnt like you kissing your gf/bf, F them. Its their problem. Shouldnt come as any suprise, its in nearly every tv show written nowadays. Just dont whip out your piece.
lol...I'll try to refrain...
I mispoke on my earlier post. You are correct, the Constitution applies directly to the Government, but by the very same token, Federal and State laws are derived by and are in support of the Constitution.
As individuals or business, we have no more right than the government in denying others their rights. We can't stop others from expressing themselves or speaking their minds unless by doing so causes someone harm, such as a defemation of character suit would imply. Speaking of which, Sarah Palin is filing suit against a couple of Bloggers for hate / defamation speeches posted on the web.
We can't search and sieze any more than the government can.
We can't deny other's their religious freedom any more than the government can.
We can't stop the press any more than the government can.
In other words, while we as citizens don't answer directly to the Constitution, we do by proxy of Federal and State laws.
With PvE raiding, it has never been a question of being "good enough". I play games to have fun, not to be a simpering toady sitting through hour after hour of mind numbing boredom and fawning over a guild master in the hopes that he will condescend to reward me with shiny bits of loot. But in games where those people get the highest progression, anyone who doesn't do that will just be a moving target for them and I'll be damned if I'm going to pay money for the privilege. - Neanderthal
You can. I dislike gratuitious PDA also. If someone doesnt like you kissing your gf/bf, F them. Its their problem. Shouldnt come as any suprise, its in nearly every tv show written nowadays. Just dont whip out your piece.
PDA tend to be pretty annoying... i dont really get wit the whole same sex thing, to each is own... its all i see on tv these days (thanks to my wife's channel selections HGTV lol)
i don't care what people do behind closed doors, but some things should be left in the bedroom, unless your a drunk college kid wearing "1000s of my potential babies died on your daughters face last night" tshirts
heh, glad i didn't have to ask my dad why johnny at school had 2 dads, when i was a kid @_@
edit: i don't mind gay people, as long as they keep it to themselves.... and stop thinking they gonna convert a straight man... that, and the fruity ones, can't stand em.... and i've known gays to call the fruits fags and other similar names
Hehe...This is funny. No one is trying to "convert" you. It isn't a religion. I don't have problem with hetero's either, as long as they "keep it to themselves."
"Qweer Bait" a 'fur' trapper? how about a b'ass master?
Too Soon?
You can. I dislike gratuitious PDA also. If someone doesnt like you kissing your gf/bf, F them. Its their problem. Shouldnt come as any suprise, its in nearly every tv show written nowadays. Just dont whip out your piece.
PDA tend to be pretty annoying... i dont really get wit the whole same sex thing, to each is own... its all i see on tv these days (thanks to my wife's channel selections HGTV lol)
i don't care what people do behind closed doors, but some things should be left in the bedroom, unless your a drunk college kid wearing "1000s of my potential babies died on your daughters face last night" tshirts
heh, glad i didn't have to ask my dad why johnny at school had 2 dads, when i was a kid @_@
edit: i don't mind gay people, as long as they keep it to themselves.... and stop thinking they gonna convert a straight man... that, and the fruity ones, can't stand em.... and i've known gays to call the fruits fags and other similar names
Hehe...This is funny. No one is trying to "convert" you. It isn't a religion. I don't have problem with hetero's either, as long as they "keep it to themselves."
there are plenty of gay men that try and convert straight men, same as plenty of women try and get gay men to go straight/bi
regardless, i'm off to bed to sleep next to my wife.. i'm sure this awful thread will be gone by the time i wake up
sorry for all the homosexuals that were made to look worse by a fools post
And hetero men trying to "convert" a lesbian. It works different ways I guess. I guess it's also time for me to retire with my husband.
Jeez. Grow up and get over it. Pick a different name already. Don't like it, don't play that game. The only thing I'm offended by is the entire section of Chelsea in NYC, more specifically "The Blue Room", but thats another topic. Its not like someone called themselves Whoreman or some other sexual name. Its a kids game first, and you have to respect that and "queer" is not a kids word. End of story.
I think the Op is confused
Its not that they dont want gay people
Its that they dont want people with bad taste
So what I'm taking from the OP is this:
It's okay to name your char the N-word Cop so long as you're black. It's not offensive. It's only offensive if you're a white guy playing a char named the N-word Cop.
Stupid thread. Your name got banned because it's offensive to your own people. Being gay doesn't give you an all access pass to being an ass.
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Elikal .. lmao what a stupid thread. 1st there is NO.. NONE.. freedom of speech in a GAME.. on a forum.. NONE. You .lol need to look that up .. find out what it means and applys to. You and all the rest have no ..NONE.. rights..
Its THERE game and they can do what they want. if you dont like it MOVE on .. t
Any mmo would make you change that name. They have NO CLUE just as all of us here.. if your just doing something to piss them off.. Grow up.. let it go..
If it botherd you SO MUCH.. you would be emailing THEM. All your doing is saying "me me me.. poor me.. everyone look at me"
then you you take it to LA LA land.
I dont want to read about this crap.. or see some stupid name that doest not belong in any mmo. Like I said.. it just looks like someone trying to PISS others off.
Very very childish.
When you cant vote, go to school, ride a bus, talk in public.. then say.. "where are my rights and I am very pissed!"
No diff.. than having "Jesus Saves!" as your name.. wont happen. But I love Jesus.. blah blah..
Look him up you really need him..
Maybe you were asked to change your name because the devs know that the vast majority of gamers couldn't give a rats arse about your sexuality and don't want to be reminded of it every single time they look at your character ingame. You can't have things both ways, you either have laws banning harassment on sexual grounds or you don't. If you do have them, then you abide by them the same as everybody else.
Man, I am so tired of high school civics flunkies. Let's just review what the 1st amendment says with regard to freedom of speech:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
I don't know about you, but I hardly think the game devs and GMs count the same as freaking CONGRESS passing a law abridging your freedom of speech.
They are part of a private entity offering an optional service that YOU are choosing to use. They are within their rights to police the game as they see fit, especially because (as you even point out) there is language in the EULA warning against sexually derogatory speech.
In many circles, especially straight, "qweer" carries a lot of negative connotations and how were they to know you were gay? There's no way they could, and even if they did know you were gay and then let you name your character "qweer cop," that's a pretty arbitrary "who do you know?" type of a system for allowing potentially offensive names vs. not that I would want no part of.
There's no civil rights violation here and we can't bemoan the loss of our freedoms at the hands of the Champions Online people. Nope, we just can look at a PRIVATE entity enforcing it's policies as they best see fit in the midst of policies that the gamers agreed to when they signed on. And we can yawn and shake our heads in disbelief.
We live in a much more PC world and, yes, sometimes stuff goes overboard. I think if you really think about it, a toon named "Qweer Cop" running around could be misconstrued as hatred toward gays by many players and CO staff, or at least many would think that CO was turning a blind eye to such a potentially offensive name. Plus, players would be angry that some people got to run around named possibly offensive things, but it was okay because they "are one of 'em" vs. people being asked to change their names from things like "N----- Nigel" or "Lesbo Lilly" because they aren't black or lesbian.
Nobody can verify your gay, black, or whatever. The "I'm one of them so it should be okay" argument is ridiculous. So, quit personalizing this and acting like it's unheard of that they wouldn't let *YOU*, a gay person, name yourself that and you've been sooooo wronged. They don't know your gay, they don't care, and if they did they'd probably be sued for some type of discrimination down the road anyway.
So, to review for all of the govt flunkies: "freedom of speech" IS NOT absolute, it does not apply to every place, person, or entity you encounter and is perfectly reasonable/legal for a business to enforce policies that you agreed to on the outset of your relationship. And to the people who think their "Freedom of Speech" is being infringed upon when they post stuff about a game on its company's forum and then bitch about the post/thread being locked/deleted (a different issue than OP's), PLEASE READ THE 1st AMENDMENT AGAIN too!
It has nothing to do with protecting your stupid freaking choices to be assholes or idiots.... Unless that choice somehow is directed at THE GOVERNMENT. Then, yes, you can act fairly off the wall and THE GOVERNMENT is not permitted to mess with you unless your actions start to jeopardize public safety in a way that is prescient and demonstrable to a court of law.
Private businesses, especially when a customer is using their software to do whatever it is that company doesn't want to happen = totally different matter.
A character named "Queer Cop".........I take it this is not an open PvP game?
QFT
Along these lines you have to realize that Cryptic or any other MMO company will not risk interpreting what is offensive and what is not. You may feel your name is fine, but Cryptic aint going to take chances in a court of law. "Well, Eiklial is a gay subscriber to our game and he said it is fine.. Therefore you can't be offended and sue me for discrimination or hate, ...can you?"
The company is going to tell anyone who agrees to their EULA that if a name is even vaguely offensive, they will make you rename it.
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Here's the way the first amendment works. If I put a sign in my yard that says, "Blue cars suck!", and you take it down because you find it offensive, then you violate my constitutional rights. If I put a sign in your yard that says, "Blue cars suck!", and you take it down, then I can be charged with trespassing. Your don't have to give me your yard for me to promote my idiocy. Cryptic doesn't have to give you their resources to promote your idiocy.
So lets stop this thread. OP you are wrong, legally and otherwise.
So, what did you guys have for breakfast? My girl made me a scrambled egg with cheese sandwhich. So yummy.
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I made myself an omelet with mushrooms cheese and smoked turkey, my wife had som plain eggs with salsa..... not too bad
To the OP, just because you are guy then that does not make it ok for you to use sensitive words such as 'queer' in your name. Just like colored people are not allowed to use the n-word. So really, you'e delusional if you think this means they don't want gay gamers. They, like any sw company, wouldnt give a rats ass about your sexual orientation as long as you pay them and dont do anything illegal with their SW.
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I'm a gay gamer.. I could care less if someone wanted to name their character queerkiller or whatever. It's just a game and it's just a name. The only thing that would become offensive to me is if they started going to a main city in the game and preach hate or pick on characters they thought were gay... and even then it would only bother me if I thought they were being serious. Otherwise they are just being annoying.